Taekwondo or Karate which is more effective?

March 21, 2007 11:49am CST
Which martial art Taekwondo or Karate is more effective?
2 people like this
13 responses
• Italy
30 Mar 07
Karate is a lot more effective....expecially Kyokushin karate because it's full contact! Taekwondo is only kick....come on! Anyway I mean the street Vale Tudo or Kick Boxe match...beacuse it depends on the rules.... Imagine a match were only kicks are allowed....TKD is more effective :-)
@Makoy1983 (1084)
• Philippines
9 Apr 07
when it comes to sports competition, anyone who has a taekwondo experience has an edge. taekwondo doesnt just focuses on the kicks, but also the overall flexibility and the speed of the combatant. i'd never seen any martial artist who's got a quicker feet than the taekwondo feet. but when it comes to actual street fight, any discipline will do. it would boil down to experience. karate is more complete than taekwondo nowadays since taekwondo has evolved into somewhat a sport. the martial art aspect has taken the backseat, though, the practitioner can still use those quick feet in self-defense
@ayy321 (44)
• United States
10 Jul 07
Are you kidding me? TaeKwonDo has just as much hand movements as Karate except for grapples. TaeKwonDo practitioners use their legs because your legs have much more reach, and because they are more powerful.
• Philippines
27 Mar 07
AS long as you embodied the true tenents of which ever martial arts. no martial art is effective than the other.. it depends on the conditioning and the discipline of the person
@Makoy1983 (1084)
• Philippines
28 Mar 07
plus the experience in actual fights. sparrings really help a lot
@jtexas (527)
• United States
16 May 07
I would say learn from both. A well rounded person could learn from both disiplines and provide good insights and provide a good blend. I have had the fortune to take both so I feel both provide strengths and weaknesses.
• India
20 May 07
i think shaolin kung-fu is more effective than Taekwondo and karate a kun-fu artist has more speend than the above, when considering the power i ill choose ninja training.
@Makoy1983 (1084)
• Philippines
23 Mar 07
either of the two. as long as you know how to use the form efficiently, it really won't matter what discipline you're into
@gjohnrod (34)
• Philippines
28 Jun 07
all i can say is taekwondo spells speed and karate spells power all these art have the same methods of striking and is a sport.
@alamzaib (1287)
• Pakistan
21 Mar 07
I prefer taekwondo
@sarapooht (271)
• Philippines
12 Apr 07
Hi Ninja! For me Karate is more effective than taekwondo because it teaches you self-defense, katas, punches, and kicks equally while taekwondo is more on kicking. Karate is a very good sport it makes you lose some of your pounds too. But its up to you where you would join. Pick wisely!
@dunnr1 (24)
• United States
2 May 07
I've taken a couple different styles of martial arts. Tae Kwon Do was my first style so it'll always have a special place in my heart. I'm currently taking karate. They are very different but both teach discipline, confidence and all that goes with learning the martial arts. Tae kwon Do is very flashy with its kicks and is good for woman and children especially. Karate is steady in it's movements but won't thrill you. It'll get the job done without the flash. You're in and out. I like both but you have to decide if you want to visually stun them or do what you have to do and get out.
• Philippines
2 May 07
i'll pick taekwondo since its the only form of martial arts that i know.
• Malaysia
13 Apr 07
i'm not an expert, buy i read alot of books from experts martial artists such as bruce lee, books on aikida, shao lin, and i practise and trained in a few martial arts before, Tang Su Do, Karate, Taekwando, Free Style Karate, Boxing. I'm currently into Aikido. Like some of you mentioned, it all depends on the practitioner. Your dicipline, of course you need your stamina, timing, "hardness" and lots of practice. Nowadays, a lot of sensei, martial art trainer teaches, say for example karate, and mixed it up with a bit of here and there. What they said is because it's practical. Of course, there are a few schools of thoughts, the traditional one that is always trying to maintain the diciplines, their teaching and culture. Then there is the modern one, going for looks, style, tournaments, sometimes shows. Then there is also the practicals one. they try to mix up techniques, as long as the techniques are usefull in the real world. If you notice in taekwando, or especially karate tournament, they mix some "leg graping" techniques, which i'm pretty sure it is not a traditional karate style. Back to the main topic, karate or taekwando, 1 question, who said taekwando only uses kicks? my answer, depends on the practicioner. cheers to all :D
@shun14 (48)
• Philippines
2 May 07
whether you practice taekwondo or karate they will have a fair fight and it really depends on the strategy of both practitioner here's a comparison taekwondo has fast kicks and sharp blows so if the taekwondo practitioner deals few sharp blows on the karate practitioner the karate practitioner is done for but the karatedo is more like aikido with strikes one mistake on both side one will fall beside they're both on the so called beginers martial arts so it is really useless just focusing on either taekwondo or karate.
• Philippines
5 May 07
i prefer taekwondo since im practicing it now. both taekwondo and karate teaches discipline but both have different methods on how to deliver attacks and initiate defense. for me both martial arts are effective depending on the person who practice them. some are taekwondo guys and some are karate guys, they have their own styles of fighting and self defense and are effective in their ways of handling situations. this discussion is interesting by the way.